1. The environment is the most significant contributing factor.

The environment is most definitely a contributing factor and obviously the colder weather and the longer the exposure the greater the chance of a drop in core temperature, however the most common cause of a drop in core temperature in TRAUMA is blood loss.

When we think of hypothermia patients we often visualize someone summiting Everest, or submerged in cold water, or a Boy Scout lost in the woods for days on end. Hypothermia cases like those are the ones we learn about and discuss when we are taking EMT class, first aid course, or in wilderness medicine classes. In these cases Hypothermia is often the primary injury, perhaps accompanied by frostbite. This type of Hypothermia is primarily due to exposure, it may be a result of a fall or accident but prolonged exposure is the primary cause of the loss in core temperature. Hypothermia in Trauma is a very different animal.

Normal core temperature is 98.6 F / 36 C at that temperature the body is in Homeostasis essentially it’s “Happy place”. The body has no heat pump, heat is the byproduct of metabolism. Aerobic metabolism relies on oxygen being delivered to the cells by red blood cells (RBC’S). When trauma patients bleed (and they often do), they lose RBC’s thus reducing the amount of oxygen that's delivered to cells. This poor perfusion(shock) results in a reduced rate of heat production and a drop in core temperature. This drop occurs with or without environmental factors.

The first step in preventing hypothermia in a trauma patient is also the first step in our M-A-R-C-H mnemonic, Major Hemorrhage - Stop the bleeding as quickly as possible and preserving every drop of blood. Hypothermia is important and gets it’s own letter in the mnemonic (marcH). You begin to preventHypothermia the second you initiate hemorrhage control measures.

2. Hypothermia is uncommon and not lethal.

66% of Trauma patients become hypothermic and almost all patients suffer a drop in core temperature.

Mortality was twice as high (53%) in patients with a Core Body Temperature<32°C compared with patients with a Core Body Temperature<34°C (28%)

Shock is a common finding in trauma patients and often a good clinical indicator that a patient is close to death. Shock is defined an inadequate perfusion, again oxygen not reaching the cells.

The Trauma triad Hypothermia - Coagulopathy - Acidosis is a vicious circle when one portion occurs it exacerbates the others. It’s a cycle we as providers must be aware of and aggressively disrupt to increase a patients survivability.

3. A blanket is the best treatment for hypothermia.

Image source: Emergency Zone

As we already stated the best treatment is prevention, if your patient is already hypothermic it’s almost too late. Focus needs to be on prevention and not treatment.

Wrapping up a casualty in a blanket or a mylar blanket (passive re-warming) are all based on the principle of trapping or reflecting the patients heat. Trauma patients that have lost blood externally or internally are in an aerobic metabolic state and lose their ability to create their own heat. You must actively rewarm the patient, utilizing some external heat source, heat packs, warm water bottles, bear hugger, HPMK, blizzard blankets, etc….) a blanket by itself will not do the job well even with a naked Ranger buddy / swim partner.

NAR HYPOTHERMIA PREVENTION AND MANAGEMENT KIT (HPMK) courtesy of North American Rescue

We’re not saying not to utilize a blanket, just understand that a blanket alone will take a very long time to increase core temperature and covering a casualty limits your ability to monitor patient (check tourniquets, monitor bleeds).

4. Hypothermia is not a FIRST-responders concern it’s the Trauma centers PROBLEM

It can be easy to have this mentality when the first people to treat casualties are only working from an IFAK (Individual First Aid Kit), which has nothing to take or monitor temperatures and very little if anything to treat a hypothermic patient.

Hypothermia prevention and treatment was not something we as military medics focused on in 115 degree weather in Iraq early on in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), when Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) was a new concept to many of us. The Pre-Hospital Life Support (PHTLS) standard of care was 2 large bore IV boluses, running cold salt water into a trauma patient and then transporting them at altitude in a helicopter for prolonged periods of time. Not so coincidentally when we changed our approach ( IV fluid only when hemodynamically unstable) and put an emphasis on hypothermia prevention & treatment our military casualty fatality rate (CFR) decreased.

5. Shivering helps and will indicate my patient is cold.

Shivering is a muscular contraction that indicates a drop in core temperature and early onset of hypothermia.

Shivering just like any other muscle activity increases the demand for oxygen. When we exercise the increase in activity creates an increase in oxygen demand. Shivering is a muscular activity and a casualty that’s shivering will have a 400% higher demand for oxygen and an increase in intercranial pressure.*6 That's a bad thing for someone that's already perfusing poorly.

Shivering is most likely to occur when the core temperature is 34-36°C,*7 diminishing with core temperatures below 34°C.The ideal goal in shivering management is prevention. Every effort should be made to avoid shivering stimuli and to stop shiveringactivity when it starts.*8 The strongest evidence in the literature related to the cause and prevention of shivering supports protection of cold-sensitive cutaneous receptors from direct cold contact.*9 Avoiding skin exposure and contact with cold surfacesshould be the first step to minimize the risk of shivering in patients undergoing therapeutic hypothermia. Other non-pharmacological treatment of shivering is the application of warm packs to the face and arms.*10

More great Trauma Monkey Blog posts:

The environment is most definitely a contributing factor and obviously the colder weather and the longer the exposure the greater the chance of a drop in core temperature, however the most common cause of a drop in core temperature in TRAUMA is blood loss.

For those of you, who haven't had the pleasure of using standard issue military toilet paper, you may not know that it's sometimes referred to as John Wayne paper because it's tough and doesn't take crap off anyone.

I've heard a ton of debate over the years about what to carry in an aid-bag for the various combat mission sets.

Fake Tourniquets are not a new issue, they have been around for the past few years or so. Most of these imitation Tourniquets are cheap Chinese knock-offs created for the Air-Softers and military reenactors.